“Apple unveiled its iPhone 5 last month, and it’s sure to make a bundle from its latest gadget. But forget about the $108-billion tech giant and its various competitors for just a moment, and turn your attention to a fast-growing Central Massachusetts ecosystem that has quickly sprung up because of the smartphone.” Read the full story at the Worcester Business Journal here.

Massachusetts will honor its indie developers and its game industry heritage tomorrow in a way no other state has — it has declared September 22 as Independent Game Development Day.

It’s not an informal declaration without weight to it, either — Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick made the state-wide day official with a proclamation, and said, “[I] urge all citizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance. ”

“Despite the sluggish US economy, the Massachusetts video game industry keeps growing, according to a survey by Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI), a state-sponsored game development center at Becker College in Worcester.

The survey found that Massachusetts game companies directly employ 2,041 workers, up 78 percent from the number found in a 2009 survey by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. On average, these jobs pay $90,000 a year, for a yearly statewide payroll of over $234 million, including benefits.”

“As the High School Senior Class of ’13, it is you who will build a path to the next generation of gaming. Already, the ideas in your head will be for games that no one can conceive of in this day and age. You will build a new path of the new games and amazing stories yet to come.” Click here to read the full story at G4.

“If you are looking for evidence that video games won’t turn your brain to mush, pay a visit to Becker College in Worcester. For students like Andrew Niemi, gaming — as it is called — is a career path and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“I played (video games) and always dreamed of owning my own company,” says Niemi, who will be a junior at Becker this fall. “I was playing Mario Brothers, and I always wanted to make a game like that.”

He is getting his chance. So are many others who look at video games in a whole different way than many of us. For them, the games are a learning tool that can save lives — literally.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute senior Cordell Zebrose, for example, is working on a “serious” video game called “On Call.” It’s being designed in collaboration with UMass Medical School to improve communication between nursing and medical students.

Niemi and Zebrose are two of 18 students in the Summer Innovation Program (SIP) at Becker College’s Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (Mass DiGI).” Click here to read the full story at Worcester Magazine.

“Chris Gengler traced his finger across the screen of an iPad, guiding a cloud of black particles down a white corridor, evading machine gun bullets.

He was playing a video game called Nanoswarm. Just a few months ago, it was nothing more than a cool idea. Today, it’s nearly finished — an impressive achievement, considering that Gengler and his fellow game designers are not professionals, but undergraduates at Becker College in Worcester.

They were among 18 students, mostly from Massachusetts colleges, participating in a state-sponsored summer program aimed at developing the next generation of video game designers.” Click here to read the complete story at the Boston Globe.